“A dizzying collection of not-your-typical music: Indian “Bollywood” soundtracks, funk and disco, punk, film soundtracks, and a ridiculous amount of exotica from around the world.”
When we interviewed Want List Records owners Dave Belson and Brian Coleman right after their opening in 2021, the former told us that he expected most of their stock to come from sellers hearing about them by “word of mouth,” and people “I have sold records to coming back and selling me their collections.”
Sadly, there’s another way they’ve come into records—by working with the estates of close friends and fellow collectors they’ve lost. As Coleman explains, “in May, we acquired and launched the Tim Haslett Collection.” Coleman and Haslett, a longtime WZBC DJ, produced the “School Beats” and “Funk To The Folks” shows for many years in the 1990s.
Coleman continues, “He passed away in 2008 and his collection is truly unique: dance music, generally, techno, house, disco, hip-hop, and just about every sub-genre within those categories that you can imagine. There are more than 5,000 LPs and 12” in the collection, and we will be bringing more out all year—dozens and sometimes hundreds per week. … For each record sale in the store, we include a card that has bio information about Tim.”
In addition, they also “have another incredible vinyl mountain that we will be offering to the world: the Brother Cleve Collection.” As Coleman says of the Greater Boston legend: “Brother Cleve was a man of many specialties—musician, DJ, producer, and mixologist. He passed away last year and we are all still in shock. Similar to Tim’s records, we are including bio info with each record.”
The Cleve collection launches in-store this Friday, June 9. Adds Coleman, “It’s a dizzying collection of not-your-typical music: Indian “Bollywood” soundtracks (over 400, including a ton of 7” as well); funk and disco; punk; film soundtracks; and a ridiculous amount of lounge / exotica from around the world.”
wantlistrecords.com/collections
A Queens, NY native who came to New England in 2004 to earn his MA in journalism at Boston University, Chris Faraone is the editor and co-publisher of DigBoston and a co-founder of the Boston Institute for Nonprofit Journalism. He has published several books including 99 Nights with the 99 Percent, and has written liner notes for hip-hop gods including Cypress Hill, Pete Rock, Nas, and various members of the Wu-Tang Clan.